1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to biodegradable compositions, methods for making these compositions, and applications using these compositions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Petroleum-based plastics are used routinely in such applications as paper, packaging materials, utensils and cutlery, food containers, as well as many others. More than 400 billion pounds of plastic are produced each year is the U.S. alone, accounting for nearly 10% of total U.S. oil consumption. Such materials are desirable by retailers and consumers because they may be simply disposed of after use and do not need to be washed or reused.
The widespread and growing use of such disposable materials results in a mounting amount of litter produced each day. Plastic litter may either be incinerated or it may accumulate in a refuse dump. More than 60 million plastic petroleum-based water bottles end up in landfills every day. Since these plastics do not decay in soil, landfills, rivers or oceans, these methods of waste disposal have the potential to cause many problems for the environment.
For preparing the above-mentioned items, biodegradable polymers are already known in the art and comprise materials such as poly(glycolic acid), poly(epsilon-caprolactone), PLA, and polydioxanone. The production of these polymers can be cumbersome and expensive, so their use may be restricted to high value applications. Another limitation with polylactic acid specifically is that it lacks the level of heat resistance present in petroleum based plastics, under typical processing conditions used in the industry.
There then exists a demand to provide a composition which is degraded in a natural environment in a time period which is significantly shorter than the amount of time required for the degradation of conventional plastic materials, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or polystyrene. There also exists a demand to reduce the amount of biodegradable polymer resin that may be cumbersome or expensive to produce.